Amoy Food Centre - 2nd Floor

Having left the crowd at Sophie Bakery, I continued to explore Amoy Food centre for lunch - having summoned just enough self restrain to save the Chocolate Chip Bun for dessert.

So up to the 2nd floor this time to see what's in store and lo and behold, 'Cha Dian Xiao Chi' greeted my growling stomach.

 I have a fondness for Teochew kuehs, partially cos of my nostalgia of growing up on them and also they mashed in my memories as part of Singapore's unique food culture.

And with this stall I spot a new kueh I have never seen - Black Bean Kueh. So it's a definitely try for this bean lover.

Soon Kueh on top and Black Bean Kueh below - $1 each.

I really like the smooth fresh skin and filling of the Soon kueh. The skin was just nice, not too thick and the freshness of the Kueh was a delight. However there's bits of hay-bee in it, so its definitely not vegetarian friendly

Black Bean Kueh - $1

The black bean kueh was not bad. The kueh itself was saltish, and the texture was smooth and embedded with black beans, cooked sufficiently to be chewed easily with a bit of crunch. More black beans throughout the kueh would be nice. No hay bee this time, so it's a okay for not-too-strict-vegetarians.

Yam Kueh - $1

 The Yam kueh however was a little unexpected. The kueh was a little sweet with bits of yam in it. The traditional saltish and hay-bee (dried shrimp) taste was missing from this version. More bits of yam would be good too.  I would say it's possible to vegetarians to try it, but I forgot to confirm it with the vendor.

Overall this is a pretty good Kueh stall with a surprising number of variety for handmade kuehs. I won't argue on the price as they are handmade, a spoonful more indgredients to the kuehs would bring it to the Wow level.

Cha Dian Xiao Chi (Teatime snacks)
Amoy Food Centre - 2nd Floor (just walk up the stairs and it's right there)

Opening Hours: Mon - Fri 7am - 3.30pm (Alterate Saturdays)

Sophie Bakery

Finished my yoga session in the mid noon heat on a Thursday, and had some time to explore Telok Ayer with it's lunchtime crowd and goodies. Just a couple of shops down, I chanced upon Sophie's Bakery.

Picture from Thursday. Maddeningly hot afternoon.

It was apparent on first sight this is not going to be your standard Singapore bread shop. The decor is so very quaint and europeanish. What lured me however was the crowd in and outside during Thursday lunch hour. The last time I 'd seen such a bread horde was probably during Breadtalk's $1 bread hour. Of course I have to join the crowd and find out!

 

Picture taken on a Saturday when
it's decidedly less crowded and I love the floor tiles!

I was surprised by  the single one item sold throughout the shop. I was pretty much surrounded by Chocolate Chip Buns - together with their cousins, White Chocolate Chip Buns. Seriously, chocolate chip buns are pretty much 80% of all the baking goods in the shop. I think there a couple of other minority breads like the baguette, and a few exotic macaroons in the cooler shelf. But most people exit with bags of chocolate chip buns. Compared to the usual bakery, this is a rarity. Most would produce at least 15 different types of various bake items in principle of chance. Higher the variety, the more likely the customer will find something to his or her liking. But usually I'd walk pass these, they're are dime a dozen such in bread crazed Singapore. So Sophie Bakery is interesting, a complete opposite of its industry norm.

 I had wanted to take more pictures - clearer ones, but I was deterred by the staff. So I put my phone away and took a tray instead.

And obviously I can't leave without one of these buns.

And the verdict; a really good tasting fresh bread evenly filled and covered with chocolate chips.

It tasted soft yet solid enough not to be fluffy. Not too moist that the flour clump together but not dry either.

It tasted of freshly leavened dough made with excellent butter and flour with a pinch of salt. Which is in short; excellent bread with bits of chocolate in every bite.


Don't be fooled by its look. It's seriously heavy on the stomach. I had one after a light lunch and it stuffed me for the next 3 hours.

A understated fact about cooking and life that Sophie's Bakery highlighted. You don't need to be Jack of all trade to succeed, you just need to be par excellent at one.






Sophie Bakery
http://www.sophiebakery.sg/

Telok Ayer Street 197 - 169 (diagonally opposite Amoy Food Centre)

Opening hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 7.30pm
                        Sat - 10am - 4pm

Amoy Street Food Centre 1st Floor - Battle of the Salads

Lo and behold, right after my shiok curry puff and not so sexy lor mee, just right in the centre I see a stall serving up salads, ala Saladstop.

Great! The health freak in me got excited.

 It's quite a hit with the local office crowd, given the perpetual queue. And it's prices are fairly modest as well.

The stall carries a nice array and variety of salad ingredients. The salad leaves and ingredients are quite fresh.

The servings are decent and there's sufficient variety to choose from. Although I found the  pickled items quite saltish.

Basic salad on bed of  Lettuce  - $5.00

My choice of ingredients were the pickled beets, olives, semi dried tomatoes, blanched zucchini and portobellos mushrooms with japanese wafu dressing. It's was pretty yum.

Abit heavy handed with the salt for the beets tho.

 For someone who's rarely in the area at lunchtime, I was tickled to see another stall selling salads just right behind Salad Kitchen. Obviously salads are doing well in the CBD. If only the trend cascades to other hawker centres as well.

The Salad Corner, right behind Salad Kitchen. Untried .

Salad Kitchen

Amoy Street Food Centre #01-37

Opening Days and hours: Mon - Fri, 9 plus in the morning till 8pm

Amoy Street Food Centre 1st floor - Healthy Vegetarian Food

On Thursday, I went for a morning yoga and finally got to explore Amoy Street food centre in all its glory - lunch time on a weekday.

1st stop: Healthy Vegetarian Food

 This stall has a steady stream of customers mostly nearby office peeps during lunch time. I was very impressed by auntie, who single handedly manned the store whipped up various dishes ordered.








For a tiny stall, it offers around 14 different rice and noodle dishes plus an assortment of vegetables to go with plain rice. I decided to go with Lor Mee.

Lor  Mee $2.30

Ooooooookay! Blogger decided to unrotate my photo, so my apologies for a horizontal Lor Mee. I didn't pick a winner from the 14 choices. I might had picked the worst of the 14. It was too salty for me and the gravy taste more like starchy dark sauce than lor mee. The ingredients were crispy taukee, mock duck meat and a sprinkling of beansprouts. Far too little variety and poor quality to justify a good Lor mee as well.


The salt level was waaay too much for me (but to be fair I had been eating saltless for almost a week) so I had to leave it after picking at  the taukee and beansprouts.

What I adore though, were the snacks that are also available there. I had a curry puff and I'm glad to say it was fairly shiok. 

Good Ole plain Potate curry puff  - $0.80

No onions and garlic were present. The filling was just good old potatoes with curry. I like how creamy the texture is and the uncomplicated taste of curried potatoes. I find it just salty enough and the curry puff pastry not oily (as compared to other puffs) either. It satiated my craving for curry puffs and it made up for the lor mee.

I must say I love people with a sense of humour. Despite being in the midst of rotating 360 degrees serving up orders for the lunchtime horde, auntie cheerfully replied my questions on her opening hours and reminded me that she do take the unofficial leave once in a while. 

Healthy Vegetarian Food

Amoy Street Food Centre #01-14

Opening days and hours: Mon - Fri, 7am - 3pm (except when auntie takes leave)

Hyang-to-gol

Vegan I may be, but I love trying new places. So eating with non-vegetarian friends is great in that sense. And my love for Korean food had never been such till they brought me to Hyang-to-gol Korean restaurant. It's located on the 2nd level of Amara hotel, on its right wing.

Getting there:
Walk into Amara Hotel, turn left and take the lift at the corner to the 2nd floor. Turn left from the lift and walk all the way to the end.





The fun bit about Korean restaurants are the small dishes they would serve and refill endlessly The best part about Hyang-to-gol is its 11 side dishes served.

1- Kimchi; the leafy parts of the cabbage
2- Sour soup; much like a cold version of the Kimchi soup, with cabbage stems and onions (I'm very fond of this soup, it helps digestion as well.)
3- Fishcake with cucumber, sweet peppers and celery stems seasoned with sesame oil
4- Spring onion mini pancakes
5- Kimchi; the stem parts of the cabbage
6- Salad with vanilla flavoured very light mayo  (love it until my wiser friend enlightened me that it's mayo. It's not that bad, but less dressing for me then.)
7- Tofu with cucumber and carrot strips (another awesome side, the sauce used is pretty addictive)
8- Plain Seaweed
9- Jellyfish with radish, cucumber and carrot strips (really lovely, non greasy and nicer than its chinese counterpart)
10- Seaweed strips seasoned with sesame oil and sesame
11- Radish slices in light wasabi

Out of the 11, 9 are vegetarian and 8 are vegan (pity about the mayo, but I think it's possible for the salad to be served without dressing). The dishes were very light, mostly non greasy and for a veggie lover like me, heavenly. Having been there a few times, Side dishes 1, 5, 6, 8 and 11 are permanent and the rest varies day to day. So every visit is kinda interesting to see what new surprises are in store.

It is also one of the few Korean restaurants that offer vegetarian options on its menu, so it's kinda cool for mixed groups of eaters.

Kimchijeon (Kimchi Pancake) $20.00

It was two of us this time, so we had a vegetarian Kimchijeon (Kimchi with pancake). It reminds me of Chai Tow Kway's equally tasty but skinnier korean sibling. Despite its colour and the green chili added inside, it's not spicy. Perhap just a hint.

It's a pretty big serving, about a medium pizza size? And it's served cut into 8 pieces.

Dolsot-Bibimbap (Hot stone pot rice with mixed vegetables) $20.00

And next we had what I like very much, the Dolsot-Bibimbap (Hot stone pot rice with mixed vegetables). I specified no meat nor egg. For aesthetic purpose, I also requested to self serve.

The BBB came with sesame oil, chili paste and a bowl of seaweed soup - which unfortunately has meat in it.

The BBB though was lovely. It has lettuce, cucumber, carrot, spinach, mushrooms. It was as tasty as most BBB goes and what's made it better than most is the quality of the sesame oil. Post dinner, I don't feel at all greasy despite downing all the sesame oil into the BBB, which compared to other experiences, led me to believe the sesame oil used here is of better grade.

In a way, having a meal Hyang To Gol made me happy with its mucho great tasting veggies. It is pricier that the average Korean eatery but for the quality of its food and service, I'd say once is a while is a pretty nice treat.


Hyang-to-gol Korean Restaurant
http://www.hyangtogol.net/main/main.asp

165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Level 2 Amara Singapore 088539
Tel: 62207160
Opening Hours: 11.30am - 3.00pm  
                          6.00pm - 1.00am